sub make_rand_str { my $num_chars = shift; my @possible_chr_array = @_; my $num_possibles = @possible_chr_array; my $rnd_str = ""; for (my $i=$num_chars; $i--;) { $rnd_str .= $possible_chr_array[rand($num_possibles)]; } return $rnd_str; } my $rnd_str = make_rand_str(4, "A".."Z", "0".."9"); my $url = "http://my/host/cgi/script.pl/$rnd_str",